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• Making Trade-Offs: Priorities Making Trade-Offs: Priorities When Managing Chronic Conditions

  • From: tracy_korman
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    Making Trade-Offs: Priorities When Managing Chronic Conditions

    Reading this terrific essay by Lori Berlin who is living with and writing about her experiences with ulcerative colitis got me thinking about the trade-offs we all make in managing our chronic conditions and life-style related health challenges.  Lori writes about how managing her chronic condition required a medicine that led to weight gain.  Accomplishing one life-essential goal meant giving up on another life important goal – one that is so tied to self esteem and health.

    While Lori’s experience is a stark and extreme trade-off situation, we all make trade-offs around catering to, coping with or overcoming our chronic conditions.  Giving up on a near-term pleasure for a long-term goal is a more common trade-off for all of us trying to exercise, eat right and keep ourselves “heart healthy.”   Many MyHealthVillage.com members regularly adhere to drug therapies that come at the cost of unpleasant side effects – some are much challenging than just unpleasant. 

    To actively address our health and manage our chronic conditions, we each must figure out our priorities – which goal comes first.  Do I pick a health goal because it is most important according to my doctor?  Maybe.  But I might pick it a particular objective because I have the confidence that I can actually achieve my goal.  With success, I might then have the confidence to try the next goal which might be of even greater significance for my health.   I might feel that quitting smoking is beyond my current reach, but improving my diet and exercise is more “doable” at the moment.  Which is better:  continuing to fail at quitting smoking or making some real progress on my weight?  Later, when I have proven to myself that I can control what and when and how I eat and that I can find the time for nearly daily exercise, I can probably muster the courage to take on cigarettes too.  And having reduced my weight, I might be less frightened by the weight gain that might accompany my quitting.

    Trade-offs are a part of all of our lives all of the time.  But a little self-discovery and prioritization can make a big difference in your health management progress.   Lori describes putting treatment of her ulcerative colitis first – and rightly so because it was life-threatening.  When remission was achieved, she could get back to her next goal – keeping her weight in check.   

    I hope that the support and resources available at MyHealthVillage can help you prioritize your objectives, set appropriate health goals and manage your own trade-offs.  You can start by sharing some of your own trade-offs - in a comment here or in a blog post of your own.  With the help of your Village, it is easier to live better longer.  

    
    

     

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  • 1 year ago
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